A new report by Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) explains how fashion and textile industry can increase its recycling of used products.
Fibre to fibre recycling has been stressed upon in the report.
As per the report by WRAP, £ 140 million worth of garment is sent to landfill each year in the UK alone. Meanwhile, demand for new clothes was around 1.13 million tonnes in 2016.
Peter Maddox, Director, WRAP states, “Only housing, transport and food have greater environmental impacts than clothing”. The extraction of new resources for garment – around 9 million tonnes of CO2e every year comes from fibre production from agriculture or polymer extrusion for synthetic fabrics.
The report stresses that new processes and entrants onto the market must be monitored to enlighten the business case for future investment. It adds that cotton and polyester are the materials with the most potential for fibre to fibre recycling.
However, the lack of information about new recycling processes for fibres is worrisome.
The fashion and textile industry is already under the increased scrutiny of Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) which is looking at what fashion retailers are doing to improve the environmental impact of their garments.
The EAC report states that retailers like Primark, Tesco, ASOS and Marks & Spencer are taking positive steps in this direction through the use of sustainable cotton.
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